“Ours must be a leadership democracy, administered by the “intelligent
minority” who know how to regiment and guide the masses. The common interests
very largely elude public opinion entirely, and can be managed only by a
specialized class whose personal interests reach beyond the locality.” –Edward
Bernays

The 20th century was the Golden Age of managed messaging.
Media moguls, corporate titans, and government agencies controlled virtually
every aspect of mass communication. This “intelligent minority” were literally
the “they” in any statement that began with “They say…”

The blueprints for this power paradigm were drawn up in the
wee hours of the 20th century by Edward Bernays, the man who would be crowned
“the father of public relations.”

In his aptly named essay, Propaganda, Bernays asked, “If we understand the mechanism and
motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the
masses according to our will without their knowing about it?”

Turns out it was possible … and very profitable. (A small
example: It was Bernays who convinced America that women had the right to smoke
in public with his “Torches of Freedom” campaign.)

Bernays—who was related to Sigmund Freud through both his
mother (Freud’s sister) and his father (whose sister married Freud)—knew a few
things about crowd psychology and other psychoanalytic approaches to public
relations, which he called “the engineering of consent.”

He was also keenly aware that the burgeoning mass media
infrastructure of 20th century America—“this web of communications” he
presciently called it—was ideal for the “manipulation of the organized habits
and opinions of the masses.” This was critical, he wrote, because “those who
manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government
which is the true ruling power of our country.”

America’s mass media infrastructure was critical to Bernays’
success in developing “technique[s] for the mass distribution of ideas.” These
techniques, which he collectively dubbed “public relations,” were amazingly
effective because they were based on the belief that “the United States has
become a small room in which a single whisper is magnified thousands of times.”

But the Internet destroyed that small room a few years back
and countless communities have popped up in its place. The people in those
communities aren’t buying the linear monologues spouted by corporations, media
conglomerates, and political leaders. They are putting their faith in their
friends and their communities, with astounding results.

Social media has brought us full circle to what Bernays
described as “an earlier age … [where] a leader was usually known to his
followers personally [and] communication was accomplished principally by
personal announcement to an audience.”

This has up sides for organizations of all sizes, but our
new reality requires that you make a few adjustments to your communications
program if you want to be heard in the Interactive Age.